Prisoner#1 said:

seems the spartans had a naval fleet and 30k men to boot

http://www.pbs.org/empires/thegreeks/keyevents/480a_c.html

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Quote:

Faced with such an overwhelming force only a small confederation of city-states, led by Athens and Sparta, determined to resist Xerxes. At most they possessed some thirty thousand men, and a few hundred ships.

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Quote:

By the spring of 480 Xerxes' army had reached Macedonia in the north of Greece. In response a contingent of 300 Spartans and several thousand allies were sent to occupy the narrow mountain pass of Thermopylae, not far from the Greek fleet, that was anchored off the nearby coast at Artemisium.

It was a suicide mission, designed to detain the Persians just long enough for the rest of the Greek allies to gather their forces. Led by King Leonidas, the Spartans heroically held the Persians at bay for nearly a week until outnumbered, betrayed and outflanked they were finally defeated.

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KingOftheThing said:

only 1000 made the last stand, the rest were regrouping. the legend is based on the final defense

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